Stories of True Adventure: WW1 Ambulance Trains (1/2)

On the 28th June 1914 the archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand
was assassinated. This was the catalyst to the beginning of the
First World War on 28th July 1914. The Great War would overturn old
empires, change world politics and cause the death of 17 million
people. On August the 4th 1914 Germany invaded Belgium, which led
to Britain declaring war on Germany. Over the next four years
almost six million British men went to fight in the trenches.

When were the first Ambulance Trains brought into service?

Ambulance trains were brought into service at the beginning of
the First World War, in 1914. These trains would transport the
wounded and sick from the front lines, across Europe to dedicated
military hospitals, and eventually home to Britain. The ambulance
trains were specially marked as medical transport to protect them
from hostile attack.

The first ambulance trains consisted of makeshift carriages
converted from French rolling stock or basic transport wagons.
These trains were quite primitive and, with only straw laid on the
floor, sanitation was poor. In August 1914, the Royal Army Medical
Corps were gifted with a number of carriages and three locomotives.
These were quickly converted into ambulance trains more fitted to
transporting wounded soldiers. The three trains each consisted of
wards, dispensaries and surgical dressing rooms. These trains were
named British Ambulance Train 1, 2 and 3.

More French rolling stock continued to be converted and the
number of ambulance trains reached eleven. In 1915 train number 12
was sent out from Britain. This was the first specifically built
medical train equipped with operating rooms where surgery could be
performed. Despite the obvious drawback of the constant movement of
the train carriage, many lives were saved in these operating
theatres. They were specially designed to be easy to clean, so a
sterile environment could be maintained. The number of trains had
reached 43 by the end of the war.

What routes did they travel and how many men did they carry?

A main destination for the ambulance trains was a six hectare
strip of land near the French town of Étaples, overlooking the
Canche Estuary. This was the site of the largest military field
hospital complex of its kind which, at its height, comprised of
over twenty thousand hospital beds. In 1917 the hospital received
forty thousand sick and wounded soldiers a month, these casualties
were transported daily by a dozen ambulance trains. The site near
Étaples is now the largest war cemetery of its kind, and the final
resting place for 11,500 soldiers from all over the commonwealth
who lost their lives fighting in the Great War.

Most wounded soldiers arrived back in home via Britain's main
ports such as Southampton and Dover. During the course of the war
Dover alone dealt with over 1,260,000 casualties. This equated to
almost 8,000 train-loads of patients. Ambulance trains in Britain
differed to the trains being used on the Western Front. Ambulance
trains running between the front line and military hospitals had to
care for soldiers who had only received basic emergency care. On
the trains they would receive proper medical attention and, once
they arrived in the UK, most were already in a reasonably stable
condition. Ambulance trains running in Britain comprised of seated
carriages as well as ward carriages.

How long were the trains in service for?

Ambulance trains were in service from the beginning of the Great
War in 1914, where they began as hastily converted rolling stock,
until the end of the war in 1918. Although conditions on ambulance
trains were cramped, and sometimes less hygienic than a hospital
building, the doctors and nurses who worked on them provided vital
treatment and without doubt saved thousands of lives.

From July 2016, the National Railway Museum in York are
recreating an ambulance train carriage to commemorate the centenary
of the First World War. If you're looking for UK train
holidays in 2016, a trip to the National Railway Museum will
really give you a sense of what it was like to travel on an
ambulance train. It's hard to contemplate the effect these trains
had on the war effort, but without them a great many more
fatalities would have occurred.

When Kenneth Branagh’s action-man Hercule Poirot first bounds onto the screen, we find ourselves in Jerusalem 1933. And while this is sure to be an unfamiliar opening to many of Christie’s more avid readers, we’re soon back into comfortable territory as Poirot’s sense of self-importance and masterful pomp come bubbling to the surface during his self-absorbed denouement.